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At 06:17 AM 5/5/98 -0700, Dave New wrote: >> From: Richard Collins - reDSP [SMTP:redsp@writeme.com] >> Does anyone know if there is a movement to develop under the GCC >> methodology, any compilers for non-standard or non-software uses? For >> example, is anyone working on hardware design tools such as VHDL or >> schematic capture? > [Dave New] Maybe it's because the hardware community (chip vendors) > keep their programming algorithms proprietary. At least the CPU vendors > publish (most of 8-) their instruction set. Imagine how difficult it > would be to develop GNU-like tools for CPUs with 'secret' instruction sets... That is true. But the way to work around that is to continue to use the chip-vendor supplied backend tool. This is typically much less expensive than the third party front end tool and typically works well. If there was a significant EXISTING market for a gnu like frontend tool, I am sure that the chip-vendors would serve it with a standardized backend tool, maybe even a gnu model backend tool??? As I said in a post in another newsgroup once, it is not worth the while of the user community to create backend tools. Backend tools are closely tied to the fast changing chips and no one other than the chip-vendor could keep up with the pace of hardware development. That was one of the limitations of Neocad, a third party end to end tool developer. I did get a couple of emails listing various sources of free tools (or almost tools). But because most of them work with Linux, I can't use them until I come up to speed with that. I have always been rather intimidated with the Unix OS. I only had a little exposure to it back when I was in school. That was somewhat painful due to the various oddities of Unix. I still can't figure out why the backspace and delete keys can't just be backspace and delete. Add to that the fact that the software people where I currently work treat the matter as, "If you don't know Unix, you must not be able to learn". So if I am to learn to use it, I will have to learn it on my own. I'm not sure that I am up to that while trying to get all of my work done too. I suspect that if I took the time to learn Unix/Linux, I would end up liking it. But if I learn now, after all these years, I may find out that I have been doing it wrong all my life!!! ;^) Rick Collins reDSP - A Signal Processing Solutions Company redsp@writeme.com reDSP 4 King Ave Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7772 Voice 301-682-7666 FAX